Page 47 of Villains and Vengeance
‘Yeah, I’m hilarious. Anyway, that’s the price for me to take you to Axel. You don’t kill her. You don’t hurt her.’
He looks surprised. ‘Do you actually care about something other than yourself,’ he smirks.
I know that trick well, so I don’t give him the power of knowing what he can use against me.
‘Nope,’ I say, ‘but she’s the muscle and I put time and effort into making her mine.’
‘Sounds about right,’ he mutters.
He’s clearly recalling that I’m just a basic bitch, an evil, callous thief. It doesn’t take much for him to believe the worst of me. Good thing that suits me just fine I tell myself, not sure if it’s a lie or not.
‘Guess it still smarts two years later that Iso easilygained enough of your trust that you opened Maddox’s safe in front of me, huh?’ I say with a smile plastered on my face.
His expression shutters and I know I’ve hit a nerve.
Ha!
‘All right,’ he says, leaning the sword up against the wall and looking as if he’s pretending I didn’t say anything. ‘So long as the arania doesn’t try to hurt me, and Axel is still all right, I won’t take her down.’
‘And you and him won’t gang up against her while you’re in her territory?’
‘You have my word.’
I take a deep breath, hoping I’m not sentencing my friend to death by bringing Jayce in and extra hoping she hasn’t got peckish and decided to eat Axel while I’ve been gone – despite what Jayce says the other incubus used to do for a living – because if she has, all bets are off.
I bend at her tunnel and pluck at the strands of her web.
‘What are you—’
‘Shh! Do you want to see Axel, or not?’
He shuts up and I keep playing with her web. I’d usually just walk in, but I don’t want to do that with Jayce at my back in case she thinks I’m luring in asoupsupe for snack time.
Why can’t I kill these assholes, or at least let them die? It would solve pretty much all of my immediate problems. But, instead, I’m letting yet another enemy into my sanctuary. I berate myself for being so weak where they’re concerned. I don’t understand it. Why them? Out of all the guys human or otherwise, why do I have such a soft spot for these ones?
I feel Siggy coming just before her gleaming eyes appear. Then she does something she hasn’t done before, she rushes out of the safety of her web, her pedipalps running over me like she missed me and she’s making sure I’m okay. It’s like her version of a hug and I wonder how long I’ve actually been gone.
I keep Siggy in front of me, shielding her in case Jayce tries something, but when I glance back to make sure the sword isn’t in his hand, he’s staring at us like he can’t believe his eyes.
‘You could get anyoneor anythingto eat out of your hand, couldn’t you, baby?’
‘Anyone or anything,’ I agree with an ache in my chest that I also don’t understand. I give Siggy a look. ‘This is afriend.’ I almost choke on the word and Jayce chuckles. ‘He wants to see Axel. He’s not for eating either. Sorry.’
Siggy gives Jayce one of her expressions that I don’t think anyone else can interpret but me before she slinks back into the tunnel and turns her back on us.
I look back at Jayce. ‘Satisfied you don’t need the sword?’
‘For now.’
He urges me forward and I let him, going into the darker tunnel.
‘You’re a human. How can you see in here without a light?’ he asks quietly from behind me a minute later.
‘I can’t, but my hearing has gotten better since I’ve been here and I’ve had time to learn the tunnels I use a lot. I count my steps so I know where I am.’
‘Clever.’
His compliment makes me feel all squishy inside for a second and I glower in the dark, locking that shit down.
